“I bought four Echo Shows,” referring to the version of Amazon’s (AMZN) connected speaker that has a built-in screen. “I gave them to family members.”

It was part of a wide-ranging discussion about the chip maker I had with the CEO at the Cypress booth on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center, on Thursday, during the Consumer Electronics Show.

El-Khoury, 38, has good reason to like Amazon’s home hub. He is one of several chip companies that are benefiting from the spread of connected stuff in the home. Cypress’s “combo” chip for Bluetooth and Wifi wireless power connections in the Echo Show. Cypress, notes El-Khoury, has 80% of the market for connected gadgets.

As more and more devices ship from more and more companies that promise to be “Alexa-ready,” meaning, able to talk to Amazon’s device, a world opens up for Cypress to supply the same kinds of networking to those devices.

“Amazon Show,” could in fact be one subtitle of CES this past week.

It’s understandable, then, that “I am a big avid user of that technology,” says El-Khoury of things like Echo.

There are other devices where the company’s chips benefit, including the popular “Arlo” brand of home cameras from Netgear (NTGR), and the Nest thermostat from Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google.

But those are the relatively rare big hits in the Internet of Things. Much of the market, including the Alexa-enabled devices, will be just part of a wild wave of experimentation that will also produce some flops.

El-Khoury is aware that while many things are being thrown at the wall, not everything will stick.

“I'm a technologist, I love tech,” he says. “I appreciate what they do on the technology,” meaning, the dozens of connected, “smart” devices at the show.

“But I'm also a user, and I don't always see how the use case fits.”

In contrast, Echo, “fits into your life, uninterrupted,” says El-Khoury of Echo. His five-year-old daughter uses it to virtually visit her cousin. “Read me the headline news while I'm brushing my teeth,” he offers, as an example of how a successful gadget like Echo fits into a routine.

He produces a ring, made by a startup called Oura. It sense heart rate and things like that, through multiple sensors embedded within its tiny, shiny frame. It needs connectivity, so it uses Cypress’s chips.

“This will set the new standard for wearables” he says of Oura. He is referring not just to features but to the qualities that matter for a chip maker: efficiency of power consumption. Among the vectors that power Cypress is an ability to keep power in check.

“The value of our part is the difference between three days and seven days of battery life,” says El-Khoury.

“That's the difference between 80% market share and 20%.”

Cypress’s closest competitor is Qualcomm (QCOM), which on Monday made a big push for the virtues of its own Bluetooth and Wifi parts. “Qualcomm is behind the curve,” he says. "They don't have the design wins, and, in his view, they are hampered by not having the right software to integrate the many chips required, software sold by Cypress known as “WICED,” which makes it possible to do something with all those sensors.

“They are ahead on 5G, I will give them that,” he says, referring to the impending step-up in cellular speeds. But El-Khoury thinks 5G will not be relevant for small, low-lowered drives anytime soon, if ever.

“5G will have its use case, but most sensors will still be a mesh connection,” meaning a web of Bluetooth or Wifi connections between small devices.

For all it's engineering acumen, Qualcomm is trying to break into a world that Cypress and a few others, like MediaTek (2454TW), already own, and it’s not surprising if Hassane’s response sounds rather like, "Catch me if you can."

The competition seems a side note for El-Khoury. For the moment, he and Cypress can enjoy the messy, creative food fight of connected devices, all needing Bluetooth and Wifi, and other sorts of connections, that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

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